Among the less harsh observations that can be made about the financial arrangements of Mr Charles Haughey is that they were sometimes messy. The party leader's account is a good example of this.
The account, which was at AIB Baggot Street, Dublin, was used to lodge money given to Fianna Fail by the Exchequer. At the time of Mr Haughey's resignation in February 1992 the party was being given approximately £10,000 a month.
However, more was being put into the account than the money from the Exchequer. In 1986, for example, two cheques for £50,000 each, paid out by Dr Edmund Farrell on behalf of the Irish Permanent Building Society, were lodged. The cheques were made out to Fianna Fail, and Dr Farrell has said that in the normal course of events the cheques would have been sent to the party head office in Upper Mount Street.
Somehow the Irish Permanent cheques got to Mr Haughey. He endorsed them and they were lodged to the party leader's account.
Yesterday Mr Paul Carty, a managing partner with Deloitte & Touche, gave evidence concerning five withdrawals from the party leader's account in 1986 which coincided with lodgements to an account used for paying Mr Haughey's personal bills. The total involved is £75,000, and the transactions occurred between April and October 1986.
The bill-paying service was operated by the accountancy firm Haughey Boland, which is now part of Deloitte & Touche.
The tribunal has already revealed that more than £200,000 in excess of what came from the Exchequer passed through the party leader's account in 1989. The precise source of this money has not yet been identified. However, it is known that money for the late Mr Brian Lenihan in 1989 was placed in the account.
Yesterday the former Fianna Fail national fund-raiser, Mr Paul Kavanagh, told how Mr Haughey asked him to raise money for such a fund, and to do so as quietly as possible. Mr Haughey said about £150,000 to £200,000 was needed.
Mr Kavanagh and the late Mr Peter Hanley set about contacting likely donors, probably about 10 or 15. It is already known that Mr Larry Goodman gave £25,000, and Irish Permanent £20,000. Mr Kavanagh has given the tribunal the names of a number of other people he believes made contributions.
Donations were passed to Ms Eileen Foy, Mr Haughey's former private secretary. Mr Kavanagh believes the exercise lasted about a month, in and around May and June 1989. A general election was taking place at the time and he was also involved in raising funds for that. He said £150,000 was being looked for but he believed they "fell short of that". He doesn't know how much was raised in total.
In and around May-June 1989 Mr Kavanagh also raised between £12,000 and £17,000 in two donations for a disabled man who could not get some entitlement from the State. Mr Kavanagh did not say it, but it seems Mr Haughey did not want the matter in the media around the time of an election. Those contributions were also given to Ms Foy and presumably lodged to the Baggot Street account.
The VHI contributed £57,000 towards Mr Lenihan's care by way of an ex-gratia payment to cover his operation in the US as the treatment was not available here and therefore not covered by Mr Lenihan's VHI policy. The payment resulted from a direct request by Mr Haughey to the then VHI chief executive, Mr Tom Ryan, but seems otherwise not to have been out of the ordinary. It did not go through the party leader's account.
It is known that payments totalling approximately £82,000 were made from the account for Mr Lenihan's benefit. The question is how much of the £200,000-plus lodged to the account in 1989 was money raised for Mr Lenihan.
Mr Kavanagh said he was looking for £150,000 but raised less than that. Surely if he raised only £82,000, or just over half the target, he would remember that? But if he did raise more than £82,000, where did it go?
All withdrawals from the party leader's account were by way of cheques signed by Mr Haughey and one other signatory, either Mr Ray MacSharry or Mr Bertie Ahern. Mr Ahern co-signed the vast bulk of the cheques. He has already told the tribunal he would sometimes sign blank cheques "for administrative convenience".